Brother

I've been slacking with updating this thing.

Last week was good--nailed the volume and intensity goals. Most of the work for the week was on the bicycle. I was a little bummed about having 2 weeks off from the gym, but so it goes.

This week, nutrition, lifting, and stretching are all somewhat back on track after 2 straight weekends on the road.

I've switched to fairly low intensity technique work for the lower body (as the bike workouts have gotten pretty muscle intensive and I don't want to overdo it by keeping heavy squats and deads in the routine). As such, the upper body has gotten some much needed attention...and the lower half workouts have been refocused to address form.

Monday, 3/17/2008

Warmed up with mobility work. It had been 2 weeks since I'd done any squatting and I was worried that I'd be stiff and tight. Not at all. More limber than ever.

Formerly, I had two boxes used for squatting. The high box and the low box. The high box had four 45lb plates on a platform. The low box had three. Now we have: high (4 plages), middle (3 plates), and low (2 plates).

I get well below parallel on 2 plates.

Box squats

1 x 10 @ Olympic Bar, high box
1 x 10 @ Olympic Bar, middle box
3 x 8 @ Olympic Bar, low box.

Felt great, even with the low box and a more closed stance. Woot.

Hang Snatches

I really want to learn how to do snatches well. This was the first time I ever did them for sets. Like I said, good technique time of the year. I did hang snatches mainly to minimize the involvement of the legs on a rest day, but also because I haven't ever done any Snatch grip DL's and I want to piece together the form a little.

5 x 5 @ 65#

Hang Cleans w/Push Press

3 x 3 @ 111#

Pull Ups

3 sets to failure @ BW (5,4,3)

Bench Press

5 x 5 @ 135#

Windmills

2 x 6 reps (each side) w/2 20# DB's

I'd never done these before. Didn't expect them to be so hard with the 20's.

Turkish Get Ups

Ugh. I suck at TGUs. Alternated arms and did two sets to failure with a 20#db.

All in all a good workout with a lot of upper body focus. Felt pretty good about it then. Feel pretty sore about it now.